Grab your helmets because Hoboken’s streets are about to become more biker-friendly.
In a January announcement, Ravi Bhalla, the Mayor of Hoboken, said that the New Jersey Department of Transportation awarded $325,000 to the city for the purpose of creating protected bike lanes on Frank Sinatra Drive.
“Hoboken continues to lead the way with initiatives that prioritize pedestrian safety and green modes of transportation,” said Mayor Bhalla in a press release. “This PBL is an important Vision Zero upgrade that will further improve our highly-used public spaces with a safe connection to our North and South waterfronts. I thank Governor Murphy and his team for the grant funding that will make the Sinatra Drive PBL a reality.”
Paved alongside the Hudson River waterfront, Frank Sinatra Drive is a two-lane road that currently has a protected multi-use pathway between 11th Street and the skate park that was established in 2016. There is also a protected bike lane on Frank Sinatra Drive between Newark Street and 4th Street. These two protected bike lanes, however, are not connected, but that’s what this state grant is looking to fix.
According to Bhalla, the protected bike lane will connect these two bike paths, and this new bike lane is expected to be constructed soon. He explained that the city will begin design of the PBL later this year with construction starting next year, after current work being done on Sinatra Drive by Stevens is completed.
Community leaders and advocates celebrated the new bike lane as a win for biker safety. “We are pleased to see this upgrade to Sinatra Drive which is used daily by many people, on foot and on bicycle,” said Chris Adair, President of Bike Hoboken, in a press release. “This protected bike lane will connect and create a much needed safe lane along the Hoboken waterfront, and provide more space for all road users.”
The city has yet to finalize other details on the protected bike lane. According to Hoboken spokesperson Vijay Chaudhuri, the design will take parking and the existing multi-use path into account, but how the new bike lane will affect parking still remains unclear.
As part of a larger set of initiatives meant to make streets safer, transportation easier, and biking more accessible, the new bike lane on Frank Sinatra Drive is just one of the ways Hoboken is looking to help bikers. Other initiatives, including Hoboken’s master biking plan and new pedal-assist e-bikes, have been in the works for years.
Vision Zero, launched in 2019, is another one of these initiatives spearheaded by Mayor Bhalla meant to increase biker safety. This part-community group, part-global phenomenon is striving to achieve “zero traffic-related injuries and deaths in Hoboken by 2030.” The goals behind Vision Zero encompass several types of transportation safety, but biking safety is one of the top priorities.
Vision Zero’s draft action plan, released at the end of January, includes goals specifically meant to improve biking in Hoboken. These goals are meant to improve biker safety through infrastructure changes and policy, such as “converting the existing unprotected bike lanes on Washington Street to a two-way protected bikeway on the east side of Washington Street.”
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